Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Mike Dunbar, Modesto Bee
Despite what we've heard, the
Chinese characters for "crisis" and "opportunity" really
aren't the same. That's a stretch motivational speakers and others use to make
us feel better when we're facing a catastrophe. Like a drought. Still, it would
be a lousy politician who couldn't find a way to capitalize on a crisis. Jerry
Brown is not a lousy politician, far from it. And neither is Anthony Cannella,
for that matter.
Friday's announcement that the
State Water Project - which Brown's father, Edmund (the first Gov. Brown),
brought into reality - would not deliver a drop of irrigation water to farmers
in the South San Joaquin Valley is a crisis. That's real and that's possibly
devastating to a lot of communities, farmers, employees and people who like to
eat. It doesn't mean they won't get water from other sources (the federal
Central Valley Project, underground storage or through water transfers), but
the state project has no water to spare.
Coalition
response... The Bee's Mike Dunbar
tackles a highly complex water plan designed to provide relief to California
water users. In the process he repeats some of the misinformation being
circulated by opponents of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan in their attempt to
derail its progress. On important issues like California's long-term water
supply reliability it's important to discuss the facts and give seven years of
planning and engineering a fair shake.
Dunbar says that Governor Brown
in recent comments indicated that the BDCP would somehow provide emergency
water supplies in time of drought. Not true. Governor Brown said that the BDCP
could have saved 800,000 acre-feet of water that was in the system a year ago
but went to the ocean instead of to San Luis Reservoir, which is currently two-thirds
empty. To be clear, the BDCP is not, and never was, intended to provide
additional water to 25 million people and almost 4,000 farmers. It is intended
to restore supplies people already have a legal right to use but can't because
of federal environmental laws. The BDCP bridges the conflict between these laws
and existing water users.
Water Supply
From: Staff, Los Angeles
Times
As California's drought
continues, and more than a dozen rural communities ponder what to do when their
drinking water runs out sometime in March, it would be nice if the state's
Republican politicians brought some straightforward plans for relief to the
table. But what many of them are bringing instead is a tired political tactic
barely, and laughably, disguised as a remedy for the lack of rainfall.
The "man-made California
drought" is the term House Republicans use to describe the state's current
dry condition, as if it were somehow the hand of humankind, environmentalists or,
even worse, Democrats that has stopped the snowfall over the Sierra and kept
the dams that store water for fields, orchards and homes from being
replenished. Funny, isn't it, that folks who question man's ability to affect
the global climate are so quick to assign human causes to the drought?
Coalition response... The editorial board makes a few misconceived statements in this piece.
First, it's important to remember that farmers use water to grow food and fiber
for people to use, and that most of the water is not consumed on-farm, it is
consumed on our plates. Water that is used on-farm goes to three
locations, groundwater, the atmosphere, or into the plant. Second,
surface water deliveries out of the Delta were part of the statewide water
delivery system developed to help manage periods of plenty and periods of
drought, while stabilizing the groundwater supplies of California.
Despite decades of technological progress and billions invested in
conservation efforts, unreliable surface water deliveries have compelled the
people of California, including farmers, to return to groundwater to meet a
larger portion of their needs.
Bay Delta
Conservation Plan
From: Michael B. Marois,
Bloomberg News
California's worsening drought is
raising the stakes for a $15 billion plan endorsed by Governor Jerry Brown to
build two 30-mile (48-kilometer) water tunnels under an ecologically sensitive
river delta east of San Francisco Bay.
The tunnels, each as wide as a
two-lane interstate highway, would ship water more reliably from northern
California to thirsty farms and cities in the south. They would also bolster
the ecosystem of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which is on the verge
of collapse from feeding water to 25 million people and 750,000 acres (304,000
hectares) of farmland.
Water Supply
From: Jay Lund, Ellen Hanak,
Barton Thompson, Sacramento Bee
California is in a major drought,
and state and federal regulators will be under pressure to loosen environmental
standards that protect native fish. This happened in the 1976-77 and 1987-92
droughts, and the current drought could become much more severe.
These standards demonstrate the
high value society places on the survival of native fish and wildlife. In past
droughts, we have given away some of these protections because of pressure to
make more water available for other uses. But this time, California can do
better. We can create a special water market that meets the state's goals of
both ensuring a reliable water supply and protecting the environment. In this
market, growers and cities would pay for the additional water made available
from relaxed environmental standards, and the revenues would help support fish
and wildlife recovery.
From: Ian Lovett, New
York Times
Responding to one of the worst
droughts in California's history, state officials announced on Friday that they
would cut off the water to local agencies serving 25 million residents and
about 750,000 acres of farmland.
With no end in sight for the dry
spell and reservoirs at historic lows, Mark Cowin, director of the California
Department of Water Resources, said his agency needed to preserve what little
water remained so it could be used "as wisely as possible."
From: Adam Nagourney, New York
Times
The punishing drought that has
swept California is now threatening the state's drinking water supply.
With no sign of rain, 17 rural
communities providing water to 40,000 people are in danger of running out
within 60 to 120 days. State officials said that the number was likely to rise
in the months ahead after the State Water Project, the main municipal water
distribution system, announced on Friday that it did not have enough water to
supplement the dwindling supplies of local agencies that provide water to an
additional 25 million people. It is first time the project has turned off its
spigot in its 54-year history.
From: Scott Smith, Sacramento Bee; Modesto Bee; San Diego Union-Tribune; San Francisco Chronicle; Redding Record-Searchlight; Desert Sun; Salinas Californian
Amid California's driest year on
record, the nation's leading agricultural region is locked in drought and
bracing for unemployment to soar, sending farm workers to food lines in a place
famous for its abundance.
One-third of the Central Valley's
jobs are related to farming. Strains on water supplies are expected to force
farmers to leave fields unplanted, creating a ripple effect on food processing
plant workers, truck drivers and those who sell fertilizer, irrigation
equipment and tractors.
From: Bettina Boxall, Los
Angeles Times (Subscription required)
Officials Friday said that for
the first time ever, the State Water Project that helps supply a majority of
Californians may be unable to make any deliveries except to maintain public
health and safety.
The prospect of no deliveries
from one of the state's key water systems underscores the depth of a drought
that threatens to be the worst in California's modern history.
But the practical effect is less
stark because most water districts have other sources, such as local storage
and groundwater, to turn to. Officials stressed that the cut did not mean
faucets would run dry.
From: Dennis Taylor, Salinas
Californian
When I was in college I read a
remarkable book titled "Cadillac Desert" by the late Marc Reisner.
When I set it down I remember thinking that water issues in California were
going to hit a hot mess of a crisis sometime during my lifetime.
Actually I didn't use the words
"hot mess." My vernacular was a tad more raw during those years. But
my premise is proving correct. Unless I get hit by a car sometime soon - I live
in Salinas so that is a distinct probability - I will live to see a catastrophe
unfold.
From: Matt Weiser, Sacramento
Bee
California's Senate leader is
drafting legislation that would expedite help for communities facing what may
become the worst drought in state history.
The actions proposed by Senate
President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, would set a July 1 deadline
for state agencies to approve water recycling and stormwater reuse projects. It
also would redirect millions of dollars intended for climate-change relief to
projects that benefit water conservation.
From: Mike Wade, Bakersfield
Californian (Subscription required)
Lois Henry's column on the effort
to bring relief to drought-stricken farmers ("While DC plays politics,
real water issues await," Jan. 28) is a stunning, yet sad, deja vu.
In 2008, salmon fishermen received
a whopping $174 million in direct payments when they convinced then-Speaker of
the House Nancy Pelosi to jam "massive salmon relief into the Farm Bill as
an earmark without a vote." The $174 million was nearly eight times the
actual value of salmon fishermen's annual $22-million catch, according to CBS
News, which initially reported the story back in 2008.
(Note: Mike Wade is Executive
Director of the California Farm Water Coalition)
From: Staff, Bakersfield
Californian
In Kern County, the state's news
of a zero-percent water allocation this year was met with bitter disappointment
but little surprise.
"I think the latest snow survey
showed they would have a hard time holding on to 5 percent," said Eric
Averett, general manager of the Rosedale Rio-Bravo Water Storage District. He
referred to the state's earlier prediction that it could deliver at least a
small fraction of the water that growers and cities throughout the state pay
for each year.
From: Lois Henry, Bakersfield
Californian
I applaud a local agricultural
water district's innovative thinking on a new program aimed at bolstering local
water supplies while simultaneously reducing the pull on groundwater. But --
yowser! -- the price tag.
Buena Vista Water Storage
District is offering to sell other Kern County ag water districts up to 12,000
acre feet of its stored water for a minimum price of $600 an acre foot."
From: Alex Breitler, Stockton
Record
Water exported south from the
Delta will drop to a relative trickle, and flows through the estuary toward the
ocean will remain low under drastic - in some cases unprecedented - actions
announced Friday.
State officials also said they
intend early this month to send notices to thousands of junior water rights
holders up and down the Central Valley, most of them farmers, ordering them to
stop diverting water.
From: Collin Ruane, KTVU 2
California's drought situation
has gone from bad to worse as state officials announced Friday water supplies
will be cut off to agencies that supply millions of residents.
KCBS calls the move
"unprecendented" and reports more than 25 million Californians will
have a significant part of their water supply cut. Other resources for parts of
California include ground and river waters.
According to KTTV, the State
Water Project is cutting out its water distribution for the first time in its
history in a move to conserve the little water it has left as the state's
drought continues to get worse.
From: Staff, KCAL 9
Drought conditions are getting
worse by the day in California and experts say the average resident is going to
see the changes.
In the latest move by officials,
the State Water Project announced Friday that it won't send any more water down
from Northern California, something that hasn't been done in more than five
decades.
From: Juliet Williams, Jason Dearen,
San Francisco Chronicle; Modesto Bee; KTVU 2; Bakersfield Californian; Redding Record-Searchlight; KERO 23; San Diego Union-Tribune
Amid California's most crippling
drought of modern times, state officials on Friday announced they will not
allocate water to agencies that serve 25 million people and nearly 1 million
acres of farmland.
The announcement marks the first
time in the 54-year history of the State Water Project that such an action has
been taken. State Department of Water Resources Director Mark Cowin said the
action was taken to conserve the little water that remains behind the dams in
the state's vast system of reservoirs.
San Joaquin River
From: James Nichol,
Bakersfield Californian (Subscription required)
The Californian's Jan. 26
editorial ("Don't use 'drought emergency' to divide us") makes a
rather cavalier statement that "ending San Joaquin River Restoration flows
is a moot point since ... the flows stop after February ..."
Between now and the end of
February, approximately 14,000 acre feet of water will be run down the San
Joaquin River with absolutely no benefit to anyone if the flows are allowed to
continue. The cities along the east side of the Valley that depend upon Friant
Kern Canal water for their municipal water supplies and who are facing the
possibility of zero water allocation could greatly benefit from the 14,000 acre
feet that The Californian calls a "moot point."
From: Michael Doyle, Merced
Sun-Star
Big dams, bitter feuds and some political
bombshells surface in a California water bill slated for lickety-split House
approval next week. One new dam would be authorized for the Upper San
Joaquin River. Another would get a green light to store Sacramento River water
at a new Sites Reservoir. The existing Shasta Dam, already the state's seventh
largest, could grow taller.
And all of that takes only one
technical sentence, on page 20 of a 68-page bill the House is set to approve
within days. There's much more, in a bill whose rapid acceleration through the
Republican-controlled House is spurred by California's drought, as well as the
forgoing of traditional congressional hearings and oversight.
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